While Canadian Communications scholar Marshall McLuhan put us all in a “Global Village,” the benefits of the village appear to elude a sizeable number of the villagers as the digital divide between the technology-haves and technology-have-nots has been growing ever wider and wider. Knowledge and ideas flow in a uni-directional, North-to-South (from the Global North to the Global South) fashion with little going in the opposite direction. A lopsided flow of knowledge, values and ideas creates an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and recrimination, with some of the villagers complaining of “cultural imperialism” and others fending off such charges by saying they are only promoting the ideas of “democracy.” But for the cultures of the “Global Village” to flourish in a tolerant, mutually beneficial fashion, it is imperative that there be real sharing of ideas, knowledge, and values. There is no better forum to address the ever-increasing need for mutual understanding and mutual respect across cultures and national borders than via collaborative learning. The British Columbia-Ghana Online Collaborative Learning Project (BCGOCLP) did just that.
Challenges Confronted
Table of Contents
While Canadian Communications scholar Marshall McLuhan put us all in a “Global Village,” the benefits of the village appear to elude a sizeable number of the villagers as the digital divide between the technology-haves and technology-have-nots has been growing ever wider and wider. Knowledge and ideas flow in a uni-directional, North-to-South (from the Global North to the Global South) fashion with little going in the opposite direction. A lopsided flow of knowledge, values and ideas creates an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and recrimination, with some of the villagers complaining of “cultural imperialism” and others fending off such charges by saying they are only promoting the ideas of “democracy.” But for the cultures of the “Global Village” to flourish in a tolerant, mutually beneficial fashion, it is imperative that there be real sharing of ideas, knowledge, and values. There is no better forum to address the ever-increasing need for mutual understanding and mutual respect across cultures and national borders than via collaborative learning. The British Columbia-Ghana Online Collaborative Learning Project (BCGOCLP) did just that.
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Created: May 31, 2009 6:54 pm
Last revised by: rickla on: May 31, 2009 6:54 pm (UTC)
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